CONTEXT Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are susceptible to lower respiratory tract infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and typically acquire this organism in early childhood. Once P aeruginosa infection is established, eradication may be impossible, and progressive lung disease often aggravates morbidity and mortality risks. The ability to diagnose CF by genetic testing at birth makes it ...

Group A streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins A, B, and C (also known as scarlet fever toxins and erythrogenic toxins) were evaluated for relatedness to another streptococcus-derived lymphocyte mitogen, blastogen A. Streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A and blastogen A were immunologically cross-reactive and shared the same molecular weight, N-terminal amino acid sequence, and capacity to stimulate ra...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent human pathogen that increasingly causes chronic infections of nonhealing wounds. Here we present the 6.8 Mb draft genome of strain WS394, a multidrug-resistant chronic ulcer isolate that exhibited outstanding high cell cytotoxicity despite defective secretion of exotoxin U, suggesting a habitat-dependent adaptation process.

The Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A (PEA) protein requires furin-mediated cleavage for manifestation of toxicity. We show here that the small stable furin inhibitor hexa-D-arginine amide effectively blocks PEA-induced cell lysis and is itself noncytotoxic. Administration of hexa-D-arginine to PEA-treated mice significantly improves their survival rate and also decreases circulating levels of ...

patients. The demonstration led to the realization that an exotoxin was produced in the experimental animal but it took many experiments and much subsequent work to define the conditions whereby such an exotoxin could be isolated and purified under laboratory conditions. The work was slow because there were many who did not believe that such an exotoxin could possibly exist. Simultaneously, par...

Approximately 57% of clinical and 33% of poultry isolates examined produced a cytotoxin. Cytotoxic activity was detected in 25 (50%) isolates of Campylobacter of which 12 were isolated from bloody diarrhea and 9 from watery stools. The cytotoxin titers were low, ranging from 2 to 16. The crude filtrates from 50 Campylobacter isolates showed no cytotoxic effect in Vero cells, no fluid accumulati...

Pseudomonas exotoxin: structure and function Pseudornonas exotoxin (PE) is a bacterial protein produced by €3. aeruginosa that is toxic for most mammalian cells [for reviews see 1, 21. The mature protein is a proenzyme and, after activation, exhibits both NAD hydrolase activity and ADP-ribosyltransferase activity. When added to mammalian cells the toxin binds to the alpha 2-macroglobulin recept...

PURPOSE To determine the effects of exoproducts from the corneal pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa on corneal proteinases and proteins. METHODS Whole rabbit corneas were cultured in the presence or absence of broths conditioned with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, elastase, alkaline protease, and exotoxin A. Protein synthesis was assayed by adding 35S-methionine during the last 6 hours of culture. Case...